Her research involves the development of new astrophysical models to understand low mass stars and exoplanets.
Barafee has developed theoretical models to explore low mass stars and substellar objects, including brown dwarfs and exoplanets.
The scientific community first became interested in low mass stars after the first report of brown dwarfs in 1995 (Gliese 229b), and Baraffe's reference models were used to create plans for observations.
[citation needed] She developed numerical tools that combine computational approaches with complex physics to study the dynamics of astrophysics.
She developed the field of asteroseismology – the use of pulsation modes to investigate the study of the inside of stars.